Santa Clara University

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A Fond Farewell

After 66 years at Santa Clara University, beloved professor Victor Vari will be retiring this year at the age of 92. On May 12, the University held a farewell celebration at the San Jose Fairmont that included former students, colleagues, and even a pair of opera singers among the well-wishers.

“[Y]ou have facilitated for us the sophistication of culture, the maturity of mind that discerns well the good, the true, the beautiful,” said SCU Chancellor William Rewak. “Thank you for being a part of us, you have helped make the idea of the University flesh and blood.”

Professor Francisco Jiménez ’66 was both a student and a teacher alongside Vari. “I recall that his classroom had the atmosphere of a friendly gathering presided over by a loving and masterful teacher. He addressed each of us in class by name with affection and needed individual words of encouragement, inquiry, or kindly admonition,” Jiménez said. “He taught what he cared about, and what he cared about taught us a lot about him—that he was and is an extraordinary, passionate, caring, and loving teacher, and the question of human value was always in the foreground of his thought.”